governments USA And her Taiwan formal negotiations on a bilateral trade and investment agreement are set to begin in the autumn amid a serious escalation in tensions with China.

The talks are part of an initiative that was only announced in June and has already led to the first meeting in the same month.

The official start of talks between Washington and Taipei is further evidence of US intention to further improve relations with Taiwan, already an important trading partner.

In early August, the President of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosivisited Taiwan. The Chinese authorities took the visit of a prominent Democratic politician to the island as a provocation and responded by holding the largest military exercise in history in the Taiwan Strait and imposing trade sanctions on the island.

Taipei and Washington have already been linked since 1994 by a “framework” for trade and investment, which, however, is not a formal international agreement.

^{According to AFP, APE-MPE}